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Former Blazer boss is home

Marshall Glickman has big things in mind for Bend

Marshall Glickman has branched out across the world.
Glickman, the former Trail Blazer president and Portland Family Entertainment managing partner, continues to be involved in various arena projects. He also works with the basketball Euro League and helps run tennis tournaments in France, Spain, Germany and England.
Living in Bend since last summer, Glickman now eyes building a “multipurpose cultural events center” there that could house pro hockey.
It’s in the “tire-kicking” phase, he emphasizes, as he seeks out interested Central Oregon business leaders with big bucks and gauges the political interest for such a facility.
“Hockey may or may not be a part of it,” says Glickman, whose wife, Lisa, and 7-year-old son, Laz, also moved back to Glickman’s home state from Boston.
Neither the Western Hockey League nor the Winter Hawks would be in the equation, but Glickman envisions pursuing an East Coast Hockey League franchise, if the pieces fall into place.
The ECHL is an NHL-affiliated pro league with nine western U.S. teams and a 10th (Ontario, Calif.) set to start play in October. The other cities: Las Vegas and Bakersfield, Fresno and Stockton, Calif., in the Pacific Division; Victoria, British Columbia, Utah, Alaska, Idaho and Phoenix in the West Division. In other words, Bend would be a good geographical fit.
Jack Carnefix, ECHL vice president for communications, says the league would be open to the idea of expanding to Bend.
Glickman left Portland in 2002 after he helped to start PFE, bring back Beaver baseball and Timber soccer and renovate PGE Park. It was an inglorious exit, as PFE lost millions of dollars under the watch of Glickman and Mark Gardiner.
But Glickman, 48, son of Blazer founder Harry Glickman, landed on his feet, using his many connections to stay in sports.
He served as consultant for the Euro League while living in Barcelona, Spain. The Glickmans moved to Boston three years ago, where he started G2 Strategic, and he still works with the Euro League. He also has worked on business and development projects, after having helped lead the way in building the Rose Garden and renovating PGE Park.
“I’m doing a lot of projects at various stages that I can’t talk about,” Glickman says, including the Bend arena idea in that talk. He says Doug Piper, a former NHL executive living in Portland, has been his partner in some things.
Glickman moved into the tennis world, working with tournaments on marketing and promotion. A top client for three years has been the French Tennis Federation, which features the French Open and the BNP Paribas Masters indoor event. Glickman says he works with the Association of Tennis Professionals — the ATP Tour — on the world tour finals, which move from Shanghai to London next year.
He consults with other tournaments in Hamburg and Dusseldorf in Germany, Madrid, and Nottingham, England.
“The sport has been undermarketed, and there’s all kinds of upside,” he says. “And I happen to like the sport — it’s intimate, kind of like an NBA game, and the athletes are amazing, strong and agile and good-looking.”
Now the Glickmans plan to build a house in the Bend area.
“It’s God’s country,” he says. “It’s a wonderful place to raise our son, it’s a growing community, it’s a golfer’s paradise and it’s accessible to the world now.”
Much has changed since Glickman left Portland.
The PGE Park operation has undergone ownership changes, the latest owner being Merritt Paulson, who has been ambitious in many ways. Paulson openly covets a Major League Soccer franchise and wants to build a baseball-only stadium.
“I’m rooting for Merritt Paulson,” Glickman says. “But he better expect to write the check.”
Glickman credits Blazer executives Tod Leiweke and Mike Golub for leading the team’s changes on and off the court.
“I’m happy Paul (Allen) saw the light and put the stewardship of the franchise into good hands,” Glickman says. “He made an error deciding to go after a championship at all costs without regard for the character of the players and the organization’s commitment in the community. The sign of a great leader is somebody who recognizes their mistakes.”